What A Ding Dong

I emptied my purse on the kitchen counter tonight. My purse was filthy and I wanted to stick it in the laundry before we went to NC tomorrow. Not the most convenient of places, I know, but I won't forget to wash the purse or refill it with my essentials.

After dinner we are putting dishes away and my husband absent mindedly picks up a tampon off the counter and starts to unwrap it...thinking it was a piece of candy. A cylindrical piece of candy? The kids looked on in horror. What a ding dong.

7 Deaths in the Familiy

How do you convince your would be/want to be oceanographer 11 year old that she should go out and buy ANOTHER fish after seven of them have died in 2 months?

We have 7+ (the plus sign is because her last fish was pregnant) gravestones under the tree in our front yard.

Fish # 1: "J.J." Cause of death? Chlorinated water Length of life? 4 days.

Fish # 2: "Luigi" Cause of death? It was killed by her cousin's fish (we were fish sitting). Length of life? 1 week.

Fish # 3 and # 4: "Hermoine and Ron" Cause of death? Water. Length of life? 2 weeks.

Fish # 5 and # 6: "Fred and George" Cause of death? Water. Length of life? 1 hour.

Fish # 7+: "Moe" Cause of death? An unfortunate accidental suicide. Moe jumped out of her temporary bowl (next to the kitchen sink) and into a soaking enchilada pan in the sink. I noticed the fish was missing and found her fins up in the pan floating next to pieces of soggy tortilla. She was VERY pregnant. H had already bought the breeders net and was wishing for many many babies.

How do you encourage her? After she's invested her own money?

Vampires and Soccer

I have been MIA. Sorry. I blame it all on Vampires and Soccer. I started reading New Moon (Stephenie Meyer's sequel to Twilight) and got hooked. I finished New Moon and have now moved on to Eclipse. It is all about the Vampires at my house. H really wanted to read New Moon, she read Twilight, and I wanted to pre-read the others before she started in when we go on vacation.

Soccer Camp started on Monday. Long about January of this year when David lived here without us he registered the kids for this Challenger Sports British Soccer Camp. This program is AWESOME. The coaches are wonderful with the kids and my kids are having a BLAST. The training that these coaches must endure before teaching has got to be extensive...and they play wonderful training games with the kids like "Pac Man" and "Austin Powers." They are tired and happy each afternoon, and the coaches give great "homework" that my kids eat up each night. Homework has been things like "make (an edible) sports drink for your coach," "find facts on your country and bring them in," "make a bracelet for your coach," or "make a t-shirt jersey for your world cup team." We won't mention that each one of the coaches is adorable and has a dreamy British accent.

Since I have known about camp since January you'd think that I would have planned out my week and would have made tons of progress and done a bunch of sewing and stuff. But no. I have frittered away every single day while the kids have been at camp, shopping for beach trip stuff, wandering the library, reading, etc. Now on the eve of my last day of freedom I am asking myself what I have done?

Advice

Last Friday our family was invited to one of D's bosses (we'll call him Mr. X) house for dinner along with many other couples from D's office. D and a few of the guys at the office get together every once and a while and smoke cigars...and Mr. X found out and wanted to join their "club." D started the club with his BFF and the club has grown to 6 or 7 now.

So we get over to Mr. and Mrs. X's house and are enjoying ourselves...time passes and pretty soon Mr. and Mrs. X are, let's face it, pretty much drunk. For those of you who don't know me well, I'm not a big drinker, if I am going to partake of anything more than Diet Coke, which happens maybe once a year, I am going to be at home. Mrs. X is drunk and decides that she needs to start taking pictures of things with her BFF's iphone. Alas, a few pictures get taken and I am in two, at her insistence holding a cigar I had picked up off the patio table. Whatevah.

Mrs. X then, thru the miracle of facebook, finds me and posts the pictures. Again, whatevah. Not my first choice, but whatevah. Mrs. X is now facebook messaging me and posting a message reading "The guys talked about it today and decided that we are all getting together Friday night at the pub. We can send all the kids over to the movie theater to watch a movie while we drink and hang out."

First, the "guys" never invited David. A few of them were talking about it around him but he never got invited. Second, do I feel comfortable that my kids would be across the open area mall at a VERY busy movie theater on a Friday night? Third, this woman is going out of her way to make me feel welcome, which I appreciate, and we AREN't invited! Fourth, how many times am I going to go and sit and watch these idiots get drunk? Thoughts?

Second Best

One of my favorite foods in the world? The stuff childhood memories are made of? Puyallup Fair Scones. (Washington State Fair) I know, I know. Scones!? Really?! I swear to you that it is not the nostalgia talking, it is the fact that these crazy scones, are crazy good. So good, in fact, my brother who lives in Knoxville has his MIL fed-ex a box of scones to him every fall during fair time. So good, that the scone line is always a mile long and there are rarely complainers because you A. drool over the smell wafting around you, and B. watch the cute little ladies in their white uni's cranking out the scones.

I swear to you people walk away with shopping bags filled with scones, people mozey the fair with arm loads of this crazy breakfast food.

The box of scone mix and the jam they make the scones with are sold in most grocery stores in Washington and surrounding states, but THEY NEVER taste the same as Fair scones. I don't think I have had a real fair scone in years. Sniff. Sniff.

I know, I know...where is all this going? It is leading to the SECOND best scones I have ever tasted. Completely different in texture and flavor, the follwing scones are flakey, tasty and the best homemade scone I have ever tasted. But you have to follow the directions (duh) and as my father always said, don't over touch or over mix the dough. It makes it tough. I made mine the night before baking. I cut them, placed them on the cookie sheet and put them in the fridge til morning. Still excellent.

If you don't care for the orange cranberry flavors indicated here, try chocolate chips...raisins or whatever your fancy.

Scones-Orange Cranberry

3 cups flour

½ cup sugar

5 teaspoons baking powder (yes, FIVE)

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut in small pieces

½ cup dried cranberries, soaked in orange juice for 10 minutes

½ cup chopped pecans (eww)

½ cup milk

1 egg

Zest of one orange

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter until dough is in pea-sized crumbs. Drain cranberries and add to dough along with pecans (eww). Whisk milk, egg and orange zest in small bowl. Add to dry ingredients and mix until JUST incorporated and dough clumps together.

Roll out onto floured surface ½ to ¾ inch thick. Cut into desired shape, I made triangles, and freeze, refrigerate or bake shapes at 375’F until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Blogger is not allowing me to post! This is a test, because I have spent the last 30 minutes trying to get the dumb thing to post my entry!

Work

I spent a few hours on the computer today looking up craft ideas for my new Kindergarten class. The teacher I am working with gave me a list of themes, and I am at the compiling stage. I figured I would give the teacher a list of ideas and pictures and have her choose.

I found some great ideas...my favorites are the "gifts" to make for Grandparent's Day, Mother's day etc. Here are some of my favorites:

Lino prints from styro foam meat trays...













Heart pendants from clay and paper clips...













Plexiglass mosaic frames....